monsbrick

Happy Fall Autumnal Season to all northern hemisphere and Happy Spring to those in the Southern Hemisphere.

Thank you for rating me! I used to write comments back to each person and I want to start by thanking you for your comments and rating me. When I started at swap-bot I took each eating to heart and also at times let it wound me. Now I like to savor the comments and I will send a private message to some people which I feel is easier to chat back and forth instead of going back and forth in public not rh profile page. I am more and more private the older I get!

Please let me know if I send you a postage due item! I’m happy to make it up to you. My local post office has reduced hours still:(

Welcome to my profile! I am 53 years old and live in Alameda an island town in a suburb outside San Francisco, California.

A few of my favorite things: Handmade anything. Dabbling in drawing, doodling, some variation of zentangles, watercolor, gel plate printing, stamping, collage, acrylics, sewing, painting, coloring, knitting, and other fiber arts, beading, cooking, and more.

Penpal writing and journal writing are some of my favorite pastimes.

💜Bella Grace& Daphne’s Diary & Somerset Studio are magazines I read.

Here are some of the YouTube people I subscribe to: Maremi Smallarts, Nik the Booksmith, Mystele, Ana Bondu, Susanne Rose Art, The Paper Outpost, Creationsceecee, My Arty Heart, Lisa Oxley, Joie de fi, Gel Press, and Gelli Arts.

Postcards: turning from tourist postcards and eating to swap only homemade or art and craft postcards. In one year I have amassed and huge collection of postcards and would like to collage or recycle this abundance without building it up to excess! Exploring ways I can save or share my collection. What do you do with your postcards? How do you share, save, or recycle? ♻️

Paper: I love stationery and all kinds of paper.

Junk journals, funky scrapbooks. I'm not that coordinated nor designed. My style is eclectic and messy and Bohemian. But I love to save all kinds of little bits and pieces. Ribbons, book pages, washi tape, wrapping paper, home made paper.

Currently listening to Gabrielle Bernstein audiobook. She's a self-help author and I need some positive psychological-emotional perspective right now.

What are you reading or listening to? Would you recommend a book to me?

Black Lives Matter and even beyond that I have loved James Baldwin since I discovered him by wandering around my local library and picking up books. I love everything he has written from fiction like Another Country to non-fiction, Price of the Ticket. The latest tv show Lovecraft Country has a voice over excerpt of James Baldwin and I was jumping up and down in my living room screaming that's James Baldwin. He writes the kind of words that make me want to cry and laugh and dance. When he talks or writes about jazz it makes me want to play the piano or dance and sway like I can feel the drums beating. He became an ex-pat and moved to Paris and France and explored the Negro experience in that country, which has its own struggles and history different from ours here in the USA but I could gush and gush. There are times when I feel so raw and realize that is how I am, I come across to other people at times, deep and raw and oversharing. But it's epic. And beautiful and yet some things a person has to experience on their own. They can't just read about or hear about. They need to go out and walk the trail, or smell the rain, or watch the waves crash at the ocean. Not everything can come through a book, but it is nice to find an author or a book or movie/tv show that can convey some of the beauty.

Apocalyptic Fiction:

*Hugh Howey *Paolo Bacigalupi *John Joseph Adams

Cyber fiction:

*William Gibson *Neal Stephenson *Scott Sigler

Horror

*Anne Rice *Chuck Hogan *Guillermo del Toro *Scott Sigler *Edgar Allen Poe

Teen Fiction

*Annette Marie *Sarah Cameron

Travel Writing

*Paul Theroux *Henry Miller

General Fiction

*Jon Steele *Francesca Lia Block *Anais Nin *Jack Kerouac *Gabriel Garcia Marquez *Danielle Steel *George R.R. Martin *Haruki Murakami *Robert B. Parker *JD Salinger *Jim Harrison

General Non-Fiction

*Oliver Sacks *Jeffrey Toobin *Angela Duckworth *Malcolm Gladwell *Jack Kerouac *Esther Perel
*Gabrielle Bernstein *Eckhart Tolle *Jack Kornfield

*Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner *John McPhee

Naturalist

*John Muir *Henry David Thoreau

On writing, mostly I write for myself. I've kept a journal or diary since I was a kid. Today I've decided to try a writing group here at swap-bot. I feel nervous about sharing what I write but just look at this profile page...it is filled with words. It will be a challenge but I probably need to feel less possessive about my private writing and to share some of it with other people. Part of me is very excited to try a new creative writing group experience!

Swim, walk, run, and dance. I keep sanity by getting outside in nature and breathing fresh air.

Here are a few things I'd like to receive but only if you have extras. Please don't buy anything for me. If you have extra die cuts, I've not been able to figure out how to make my own die cut though I love collage and cutting papers one by one. Also ephemera fascinates me and I have started experimenting with making my own watercolor doodles or ephemera like paper flowers and textured ribbons or fabric and fiber.

Something I seem to buy often are brats? Or those little beads and metal pieces but then I don't do much with my collection. If you need these message me and I can send some to you.

Crystals & Rocks & Precious Metals: I used to think hippies were crazy for being into these things. I didn't get it. I still do not really understand the metaphysical aspects but I just love crystals and rocks and metals.

Here are a few of my favorite crystals: Rock crystal, rutilated quartz, amazonite, tourmaline, pyrite, mica, rose quartz, celetite, serpentine, selenite, jasper, azurite, obsidian, and many more.

Making new Fimo clay pieces. Next I'm going to make some shrinky dinks. I've had the plastic sheets but haven't experimented with them yet. This was always something I wanted to try as a kid and NEVER did! Oh the places we'll go~

Artist Trading Cards or ATC and other arts and crafts creations. Recently I started really trading artist cards and that is super fun. I'm enjoying swapping these cards, other peoples' beautiful, fantastic, creations!

Love all kinds of music, all genres. I listen to electronica, opera, soundtracks. I download all kinds of podcasts and news on YouTube or other online sources. Spoken word.

I heard some big investor, one of the Rolling Stones maybe? Is saving the old blues recordings on 78-- from like the Mississippi delta and Louisiana-- vinyl and converting the into digital collections. I also love Gospel. I am not familiar with too many Gospel singers but I love some Gospel music, church music, Gregorian chants, ecstatic dance...Amen.

My husband and I have planted a small victory garden. We have had a garden for over 10 years. This year we planted with the intention of reducing our dependence on the grocery store. Edible flowers too. Fruits like this year a volunteer blackberry bush joined our harvest. Cucumber, kale, mache, lettuces, beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and peppers all varieties of peppers.

What about you? Do you grow anything? Do you have house plants? Succulents/ can you give me any advice on succulents. I kill mine-unintentionally.